Chapter 504: Any Normal Person Would Choose This
On the morning of February 15, Lin Haoran arrived at the company early as usual.
As soon as he walked in, Huo Jianning reported excitedly, "Boss, the relevant authorities have already approved our application to rename the building 'Landmark Tower.' I'm planning to replace the sign on the rooftop in the next couple of days!"
"Good. Since it already belongs to us, it should naturally bear our name. It's also a great advertisement," Lin Haoran replied with a smile and a nod.
At ten o'clock that morning, Lin Haoran received another phone call from Su Zhixue.
"Boss, regarding Southland Corporation, we've successfully taken it over. The previous controlling party has already handed the company to our Huanyu Investment. When would you like to arrange for someone to go over and take charge?" Su Zhixue asked over the phone.
"How is Southland Corporation operating at the moment?" Lin Haoran asked.
"The CEO of Southland is a professional manager. He is currently running things, and everything is operating normally," Su Zhixue answered.
"Good. Give me that CEO's contact information. You don't need to worry about the rest," Lin Haoran said with satisfaction.
Southland Corporation was in Texas, in the United States, and he had already taken that into consideration at the time of the acquisition.
Although the U.S. market was still Southland's most important market at present, Lin Haoran knew very clearly that the biggest future market for 7-Eleven would be in East Asia, not in the Americas.
Before he transmigrated, 7-Eleven already had more than 20,000 stores in Japan alone. Even the small island of Taiwan had over 5,000 outlets, while the United States had only about half Japan's total.
This made it obvious that Japan's convenience-store market was significantly better than America's.
After getting Southland's CEO's office number from Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran immediately dialed the long-distance line to Texas.
"Is this Mr. Anton Allison?" he asked with a smile once the call connected.
"Yes, this is Anton. And you are…?" came the puzzled voice on the other end.
"This is Lin Haoran, the new owner of Southland Corporation. I'm sure you're aware of who I am," Lin Haoran continued.
"Hello, Mr. Lin. If you hadn't called me, I was planning to call you myself. I'd like to know what plans you have for Southland after the acquisition," Anton Allison asked directly, voicing the matter that concerned him most.
"Why don't you come to Tokyo? I'll be waiting for you here. I need to talk with you in person. Treat it as a business trip, but before you leave, I hope you'll make proper arrangements for the company's day-to-day affairs. I don't want to see any problems crop up in just a few days," Lin Haoran said, getting straight to the point of his call.
He intended to move Southland's headquarters to Japan, at least temporarily, because from now on Japan would be 7-Eleven's most important battleground.
If the owner of 7-Eleven suddenly changed from Ito to a Chinese entrepreneur like himself, there was a good chance it would affect 7-Eleven's expansion in Japan.
In the future, once 7-Eleven had already become Japan's number-one convenience-store giant, he planned to move the headquarters to Hong Kong. By then, even if the move caused some ripples, it would not matter. The chain's dominance would already be a settled fact.
As for America, 7-Eleven already had a decent level of recognition there, with solid coverage in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. With the brand name already established, and given that American consumers were not as fixated as the Japanese on "supporting domestic products," relocating Southland's headquarters out of the U.S. would not have too great an impact.
After all, the United States was ultimately a melting pot of many ethnicities, unlike Japan, which was essentially a single-ethnicity nation-state.
Lin Haoran's words left Anton Allison almost no room to refuse.
If he did not come, Lin Haoran would have no qualms about replacing him with someone else.
After a brief silence, Anton finally said, "All right, Mr. Lin. I'll catch the earliest flight to Tokyo tomorrow morning."
It was morning in Tokyo, but already night in the U.S., so if Anton wanted to come, he indeed had to wait until the next morning, American time.
"Good, Mr. Allison. I'll be waiting for you," Lin Haoran said with a smile.
After hanging up, he was in an exceptionally good mood.
7-Eleven was destined to become the most powerful convenience-store giant in the world. Although his intervention might change its future trajectory somewhat, he did not believe that its prospects would worsen.
He was no ordinary person; he knew perfectly well which regions would become the key markets for convenience stores in the years ahead.
In fact, under his control, 7-Eleven might well develop even faster than it had in his previous life.
Besides, it was time for 7-Eleven to enter the Hong Kong and Singapore markets.
In his previous life, the 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong had been operated by Jardine Matheson, and it was this very year that Southland had authorized Jardine to become its franchisee.
But now Jardine Matheson had already been chased out of Hong Kong by him, and 7-Eleven itself had become one of his companies, so the structure of Hong Kong's 7-Eleven operations would naturally change.
He decided that Dairy Farm International would be the one to run 7-Eleven in Hong Kong—it was a perfect fit.
Dairy Farm International was now focusing precisely on retail.
"Boss, yesterday's numbers are out. Turnover at Wellcome Supermarket dropped by 80% compared with usual. That's even worse than the day before," said Sato Shimono with a sigh as he handed over a report.
"Mm, I see," Lin Haoran replied calmly.
"Boss, are we really not going to respond at all? If necessary, we could cut prices as well. Even if we lose some money, at least we could hold onto our market share. Otherwise, if things go on like this and customers form a shopping habit with them, even if they raise their prices again later, those customers might not come back to Wellcome," Sato said anxiously when he saw how unconcerned his boss appeared.
He had been in charge of Wellcome's supermarkets before, and keeping those three stores alive in Tokyo had cost him a lot of effort. They were his hard work and pride.
"Look how worked up you are. Relax. In at most two more days, they won't be able to keep that price war going," Lin Haoran said, actually quite pleased by Sato's concern.
Sato's anxiety showed how seriously he took Wellcome Supermarket, and that was exactly the kind of subordinate he wanted.
Seeing that Lin Haoran remained so confident, Sato had no choice but to wait and see, even if he still did not understand what his boss was planning.
In two days' time, he would find out whether Ito-Yokado really would stop its price war.
"Boss, Miss Nakamori is here again, and her father is with her," the receptionist reported as she entered the office.
"Mm, bring them in. Mr. Sato, step out for now," Lin Haoran said, looking at the two of them.
"Yes, Boss," they both replied in unison.
Before long, the receptionist led Akina Nakamori into the office once more.
Sure enough, a middle-aged man who looked a little over forty followed behind her; he was clearly her father.
The receptionist did not leave, knowing she would be needed as an interpreter again.
As soon as he entered, Akina's father discreetly sized up Lin Haoran.
He really was exactly the same as in the newspaper photos.
At that moment, he fully confirmed that the man in front of him was indeed the famous Hong Kong super tycoon.
The previous afternoon, he had gone to see a friend who loved watching international news and had learned a lot more about Lin Haoran from him.
After discussing everything with his wife at home, the couple had become even more certain that, if the man really was the Hong Kong tycoon their daughter had mentioned, they had to make sure Akina seized this opportunity. Even the slightest connection with such a man could bring endless benefits to the Nakamori family.
Looking at the nervous expression of Akina's father and the even more lively Akina herself, Lin Haoran smiled and asked, "So, have you made up your minds?"
The receptionist promptly translated his words into Japanese.
"Mr. Lin, after discussing it with my parents, I've decided to sign a contract with your company. I brought my father with me today specifically so we could sign the contract together," Akina replied.
Her father nodded beside her.
"All right then. Take a look at this contract and see if there are any problems. If not, go ahead and sign," Lin Haoran said, taking two copies of the contract out of the cabinet.
Naturally, the contracts had been prepared in advance.
He had long since realized that there was no way Akina would be able to walk away from such a good opportunity.
Even if she passed the variety-show selection, there was no guarantee she would become a big star. She had already failed twice, and a third failure was hardly unlikely.
By contrast, this monthly salary of 200,000 yen was very real.
Any normal person would choose this option.
Her desire to enter show business was rooted in the wish to change her family's living conditions.
Now, with an extra 200,000 yen a month, their financial situation would be transformed.
Akina's father studied the contract carefully, worried his daughter might be tricked.
After a long while, once he was sure there were no issues, he said a few words to Akina.
She nodded, then finally signed her name.
As her legal guardian, her father also signed his name beneath hers.
Watching them both sign, Lin Haoran broke into a smile.
Akina Nakamori was not going anywhere now.
After the signing was complete, Akina's father hurriedly left with one copy of the contract.
His sole purpose in coming had been to verify that Lin Haoran really was the Hong Kong tycoon his daughter had described.
Now that he was certain, he could finally relax.
As for Akina, she was now officially a member of the Real Estate Group's Japanese branch and naturally had to stay.
"Boss, is there anything I need to do right now?" Standing in Lin Haoran's office, Akina asked nervously.
"For the moment, you don't need to do anything. Oh, but you should work hard on your English—or Mandarin would do as well. After all, we can't rely on a translator every time we talk," Lin Haoran said with a sudden laugh.
(END CHAPTER)
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